Family Encourager

The other day, as I sat reflecting on my life, which I seem to do every year around the time the new school year begins. In other words, September! I thought about all I wanted to do and be when I was 16 (my son's age now). I thought back to all the day dreaming I did, and all the ideas I had. I did a mini audit in my head. How many of these dreams became a reality? How many I am glad never did? How many I still hold in my heart as a "maybe one day"? On most days, I am content with my lot in life, never looking back in regret, nor wishing I was somewhere else doing something else. Now that my children are older, and I feel I have time to pursue my own interests and discover new hobbies. I occasionally wonder what more I could have done and been.  Do we all fall into our lives? Do we determinedly stride forward knowing exactly what we want and seek it? Do we start out in one direction and end up somewhere else? Even better then we envisioned? How many people do ...

I have a few pet peeves, and one of them, is lack of or terribly miserable customer service, customer experience, client relations, consumer service, call it what you will! I always feel that if I am paying for a product or service, I need to be treated with respect and decency from the retailer/service provider.  My career has exclusively been in customer based industries, providing services for face to face interactions. In other words, industries that required human communication. It has been an absolute pleasure seeing happy return clientele and at times challenging "please never come back" clientele. The one commonality in both, is us, as service providers needed to remain fair, courteous, helpful, and non-judgemental in either case. It is not up to us, to treat the difficult less satisfied guest any differently.   Studying the exceptional, the mediocre, the awful, and the down darn atrocious customer experience has been a secret hobby of mine. Yes, I worke...

I am known to be a tiny bit honest, in a nice way! I try and tell it, as it is, without hurting feelings (I hope). I like a sense of magic in my life, a touch of whimsy, a reminder of fairies and enchanted places. The reality of my daily existence is a complete routine and a daily grind of what to do's and who needs to be where when. I am a mother and a wife and part time blogger and training consultant, there is a constant load of duties to fulfill, and I love being wanted and needed! A full life equals a life well lived, I would like to think. In other words, the less I think of the basic needs the better. I still enjoy that tiny bit of flexibility, in what I wear, what I read, what I eat. Well, you get the drift. I have been on this planet for 40 odd years, wink wink, no need to know the exacts! The world has progressed in those 40 years at lightning speed. The future we envisioned when in our teens, is nowhere to be seen. The world our children are growing up in, is comp...

The holiday season for our family is December! We celebrate Christmas in all its true sense. To be honest, the tree will go up in November, and gift buying and hiding them, will start anywhere in October onwards. The parties, the baking, the gatherings, the caroling, the continuous action will go on for a whole month!  We love the Festive Season for reasons we probably cannot articulate. Including love of family, friendships, spreading cheer, meeting old and new friends, making more effort for charity and unity, the food, yummy yummy food, church celebrations, gatherings of all sorts, ugly holiday sweaters, and even that weird relative you see only once a year. The whole package is all special and unique! I cannot explain it, but while I moan every year about everything that needs to get done for the holidays, I love every second of it! This holiday season, I am reminding my children of their blessings even more then years past. We live in a region of conflict and st...

Fifty years ago, being a 50 year old woman, meant you were counted as an old person. Fast forward to today, and 50 is the new 30! For the sake of this topic and because I am a mid age female, living this truth, I will discuss the woman's point of view. Sorry guys, you are going to have to find yourself somewhere in my writing. Aging is not a choice! Everyday if I look in the mirror I could find a new wrinkle, new line, new sag, new white hair, new jelly wobble, new reason to hate getting older. It's good I don't look in the mirror very often! How you age is a choice.  Outward appearances will change, it's a fact. Until the fountain of youth is discovered, as you get over a certain decade your body becomes unrecognizable. You wake up one day and think "who is this person staring back at me?" On the inside I feel like I am still 25! My spirit feels young and beautiful. The beauty industry in the last 20 years has metamorphosed from enhancing y...

As a family encourager, I encourage and support all types of families. In all shades, shapes, and sizes. In today's world, any family unit that lives under the same roof looking after each other is a beautiful thing. Even if I do not agree with the choices people make to become that family, I still encourage all types of families. Nuclear family, blended family, step family, grandparent family, single parent family, childless family, same sex family, adoptive family, the list is endless in family structures. It is also my belief that diversity and differences make our world a tapestry of freedoms and understanding. In our family, we raise our two children to respect all religions, skin color, and cultures. Our children have friends from all around the globe, their social circle looks like the United Nations, where all nationalities are welcome. We celebrate with those friends, their many festivals and religious holidays. We accept all their multifaceted lives, that ...

No family encourager blog will be complete without dedicating one or more entries to the family I have chosen. The family we are born into, is ours to have, like it or not! (That could probably fill a few months worth of writing!) Lucky for you, today I am not writing about that! My friends are my tribe, my team, my pack, the people that carry me through life. I hear soul mate bandied around all the time. I always wonder what that means? The definition of soul mate is "a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner". The truth is that your soul mate does not have to be a romantic partner, it could easily be a soul sister or brother. Yes, I have male friends that have been especially extraordinary in my life. I have been blessed in my life, that wherever the world has taken me, I have met amazing hearts that have made my new journey worth it and that balanced the "new place" feeling with an "at home" feeling. H...